Stumbling Surprises
by SurrealExistence
Summary: Chloe spends her days moping around after Mila Andrews steals her boyfriend until she stumbles into a certain someone, who makes it his mission to make her feel better. [One-shot. Chlerek. AH.]


**Hey guys, sorry but this isn't an update of SSS. Which, I do apologize about. I'm in the process of writing chapter fifteen, but it's not going anywhere. I've been spending lots of time on it, but nothing I write seems to work out. I seem to have writers block, and every time I sit to type something up, I make very little progress. But your reviews make me smile and a few even pushed me to write something. Especially one of the recent ones.** _ **Zane S. White**_ **, I'm referring to you. I don't know if you're reading this, but your review shoved me into writing something and it also made me grin. Very blunt no sugar coating but nice. Anyways, I hope to have a chapter up by the end of next week but we'll see how that goes. But for now, enjoy this one-shot.**

 **Basically the one-shot is AU to the DP books as well as SSS. Chloe, finds out that Simon Bae, (her boyfriend recently turned ex) is now dating the girl he dumped her for. She goes to the nearby library to distract herself, where she stumbles into Simon's brother—Derek Souza. She bumps into him again, outside of the library, this time emotional and she rants about all the things going wrong in her life to him.**

 **It's not much, in terms of apologies, but, it's something. And for those of you who have read my other one-shot type story thing, I'm currently writing some stuff to add to it. So, if you're interested, that should be coming up soon. And if you haven't read LLL—my other story—check it out if you need something to read.**

 **Anyways, enjoy.**

 **()()*(*)**

It's always the pretty girls with black hair, she decides, that always cause the problems. Always. And Mila Andrews, by definition was a pretty girl with black hair, and she had caused the problem. It was also partially Simon's fault, but still. It happened on a sunny day during the middle of the week. Simon had rescheduled on her three times and she had lost her patience. You see, Chloe wasn't the type to lose her patience. She was shy and quiet and always patient. But that day, well, that day, she'd had enough.

She and Simon had been having problems lately, but Chloe cared very deeply for Simon and their relationship, so she suffered along and tried to make the best of it. The way she always did. Simon was always cancelling on her, forgetting to pick her up, forgetting important things, not keeping promises—but Chloe wasn't the type to need a man to survive. So she toughed it out and chalked it up to Simon being busy and tired, and she told herself that it didn't matter and that she would not be a clingy girlfriend. Because they were the worst—according to Tori of course—and she would not become one of them.

Anyways, she held it together and went with the flow. Until that day. Because that day she'd lost her patience.

It was their one year anniversary, and she'd finally managed to secure a spot at their favorite restaurant. She'd arrived early to order their food because she'd had a feeling he'd be late, and then he called her—almost an hour and a half after their allotted time to meet—and said that he'd gotten held up due to his tutoring. But school had finished three weeks ago…what the hell. Needless to say, she'd stormed out of there and drove straight to his house after hanging up. His Dad had opened it and said that Simon was upstairs.

She'd stormed upstairs and guess what she saw? Her boyfriend and Mila sitting on the bed, studying. Only they weren't studying the English language, but rather the language of the tongue. Doing the only rational thing she could do, she exploded. Yelled and yelled and yelled. She threw her shoe at Simon, called him every name under the ozone and yelled at Mila too. Perhaps she over reacted, but either way, Simon dumped her ass and she fled the house.

And now, almost three weeks later, she'd gotten word of Simon and Mila's romance. Fan-freaking-tastic. Her ex and the girl he left her for were now having the summer of their lives, while she was binge watching bad shows on Netflix and eating her problems away. Excellent. Really, truly the summer she'd aimed for.

Chloe sighs and sits down on the pavement. She really hopes that she doesn't bump into the happy couple because that would be incredibly awkward and painful. She's over Simon, she swears she is. But who would want to see their ex and his new girl? Yeah, not her.

And then it happens.

She spots them; hand in hand they walk, all smiles and laughter. Simon is as handsome as ever, with his khaki shorts, moccasins, and button up shirt. His hair is neatly styled, dirty blonde and soft and his almond eyes are covered by a pair of Ray Bans. Mila's black hair spills over her shoulder, part of it covered by the baseball cap she wears. Her dark blue tube top shows off her tanned and toned stomach and her soft curves. Her shorts accentuate her long legs and her smile is heart stopping.

Chloe gives herself a once over. She looks like an ogre. Her strawberry blonde hair is down, curling slightly at the bottoms. The red streaks have long since left. She's wearing a striped crop top and black shorts. At least her body is nice—with no one else to focus on, she has loads of time for gymnastics and the gym—and from days at the beach, it's also tanned. Her makeup is minimal, a bit of lip gloss and a layer of carefully applied mascara and a thin layer of sunscreen. Anything else, and her skin would get splotchy. She wore a dark grey hat and converse, and her favorite necklace. So, okay, maybe she didn't look like an ogre. But she definitely couldn't compete with Mila-freaking-Andrews.

She wants to run, but they spot her and walk over. Dear God, she thinks, please take me.

Mila flashes her a smile and Simon waves. She steels herself and waves back, with a smile of her own.

"Hi Mila, hi Simon." She says. She hopes her voice doesn't sound strained.

"Chloe!" Mila exclaims, embracing her like they're long lost sisters or something. (And if they were, Mila would be a terrible sister. What kind of sister steals their sister's boyfriend? There were sibling rules against that, right?) Chloe returns the hug awkwardly, wondering why the hell she let this happen.

"How are you Chloe?" Simon asks. He shoots her one of his Simon Bae smiles. "What've you been up to?"

She wants to tell them that she's been considering different ways to take her anger out on them, but she refrains. She wants to lie and say that Mila is ugly and so is Simon, which is why they ended up together. She wants to ask if they're both aware of how lame it is to leave your girlfriend for a girl who is failing eleventh grade English. She wants to ask if Mila's face is melting off, because it sure looks that way—it doesn't, obviously, but Mila can't tell, can she? She wants to ask if Mila has ever even seen the Celtics play a game or if she even knows what they are. She wants to tell Simon that his hair looks too gelled and that she hopes a pigeon or seagull poops on his head. But something tells her that none of that would go over well.

So instead, she says, "Good. How about you guys?" Call it what you want, but she doesn't want to start a fight with the golden couple and nor does she want to be known as the jealous ex.

"Amazing!" Mila gushes. "Simon is taking me out of town for our one month anniversary, next Friday!" Chloe wants to ask Mila to remind her of when she asked to know this, but it sounds too Tori –like to say. Chloe purses her lips and nods, pretending that she gives a crap. She doesn't.

Simon gives her an awkward look and she knows that he's embarrassed. He never took _her_ out of town for their one month anniversary. Or their six month anniversary. Hmph. Well, she doesn't care. Not one bit.

"That's so cute." She says. She's lying. Because who goes out of town to celebrate lasting for a month? Not anyone smart, obviously.

"Are you still watching Bones?" Simon asks.

She's surprised that he remembers about her obsession but she ignores it. "Uh, yeah." She replies. "I re-watched the entire series, like twice." She says, and then regrets it because she basically just admitted to not having a life. So she changes the topic.

"I heard your brother was back in town." She says, referring to Simon's adopted brother—Derek. He was adopted when Simon and Derek were five. She and Derek were never close growing up; in fact he was pretty distant from everyone excluding Simon. Mr. Bae and a selective few from the football team. From what she remembered, he spent most of his time reading and studying and playing football. He was the quarterback on the varsity school team all of ninth grade, but then he was whisked away the summer before tenth to go to a fancy smart kid school. She hadn't spoken to him since. He returned to town every so often, went to a party with Simon and spoke to his old friends. From what she can recall, he occasionally dated but one time make out sessions were more his thing, but even those were pretty rare.

Simon's face lights up at the mention of Derek. "He just got home two nights ago! Dad and I really glad he's back. He's staying until school starts." Simon frowns and cocks his head. "How did you know Derek was in town?"

"I dropped by a few days ago to give Mr. Bae his birthday present and he mentioned it." Chloe says. By the look on Mila's face, she knows that Mila didn't do anything like that. Hah. She, the ex, had just shown more consideration then Mila, the girlfriend. Point for her. She was thankful that she'd decided to go through with giving Mr. Bae a present. Asides from spawning Sata—Simon—he hadn't really done anything. He was actually a really nice person, in fact, the day after Simon broke up with her she'd bumped into him and he's spent ten minutes talking about how idiotic Simon was.

"That's really nice of you." Simon says, and she can tell he's being honest. Well then.

Mila smiles, slightly less happily. "You should join Simon and I; we're going for some late lunch."

Go on a walk with her ex and the girl who he cheated on her with? Um, no thank you? Chloe smiles stiffly and says, "I'd love to but I can't."

Simon raises an eyebrow. "Why not?"

Ugh, why couldn't he just let it go? Jeez. "I'm going to the library." She lies quickly. She can tell that he's not convinced. And why would he be? She doesn't really read anything but scripts for old classic, nothing that the library would have. But who cares? (Obviously her, but no one else). "My Dad recommended an old classic to read." This is absolute bullshit, because she hasn't seen her Dad in months let alone speak to him. But Simon, being the ex that he is, doesn't know that.

"Oh." Simon says. "Maybe next time then."

Chloe smiles stiffly again and waves goodbye before heading in the direction of the library. It's a twenty minute walk, so she has some time to reminisce. She thinks about her annual checkup last week and how the doctor asked her if she was sexually active. She had almost burst out laughing at that. Her? Sexually active? Hah, good one. When she'd been dating Simon, they hadn't gone all the way. Well, they went far but not that far. And now, being as single as a sole Pringle, there was no chance at. Whatever. STI's sucked, right?

The walk to the library is boring because she doesn't have anyone to talk to. Tori is away with her parents for the weekend, Liz is out of town until next month and Nate has work until eight tonight. So yeah. No summer fun for Chloe. At least not until after eight. She sighs and walks into the library, feeling like, well, shit.

The library is a pretty normal place. There are loads of books and shelves with movies and magazines. There's a study floor and computer lab, and a downstairs theatre type thing. Her Mom used to take her to the little kid conventions that were held downstairs when she was younger. But then she died, and her Dad had never picked up the habit. Chloe walked through the halls and went to the science section. She was taking physics next year (sigh) and she might as well get started on it.

She's searching through the textbooks, mumbling about stupid school when she feels something drip onto her bare thigh. She glances down and sees that it's a drop of water. On further inspection she realizes that it came from her face. She was crying. Great.

She wipes the tears away and grabs a textbook. Chloe really hates the way everything is turning out today, because she wasn't supposed to be sad today. She was supposed to be fine and not crying about Simon and she was supposed to be a hundred percent over him, but nope. She turns around and bumps into someone.

Great. As if her day couldn't get any better. She mumbles an apology and walks off, not bothering to look the stranger in the eye. She doesn't need to see any pity, not today at least.

"Wait—" The stranger rumbles. His voice is deep and soft, and oh so nice. She stops but doesn't turn. "You forgot your textbook."

She rolls her eyes and wipes at her stupid tears again and says, "Don't worry, physics sucks anyways. I'll get it tomorrow." She keeps walking but the stranger grabs her arm and turns her around, gently.

"What?" He says, genuinely sounding surprised that she thinks that physics sucks. "Maybe someone just didn't explain it to you right."

She looks at him now in disgust. "No, I think it just sucks." She looks up at him and her mouth falls open in shock. Boy, has he changed. His hair is still dark and messy, but he's grown taller. His face is completely free of acne (well, it had been that way since like eighth grade) and his lips are in a perfect pout. He's wearing a long sleeved shirt and khaki shorts—what the hell is up with those shorts anyways?—and oh my dear lord, she's freaking out. He looks so amazing standing there. His jade orbs are hooded and there's a light to them that she's never seen before. "Derek?" She breathes in surprise.

His face breaks into the smallest of smiles. "Chloe." He says. "How have you been?"

Shitty as hell. "Good and you? Phoenix Academy treating you well?"

He smiles again and crosses his arms, muscles rippling. Her gaze narrows down on his frame, tall and sturdy and oh so muscle filled. And it's not that creepy steroid muscle, but the kind that teenage boys dedicated to their health and physique have. "Excellent." He says. "Now what was it that you said about physics?"

She gives him an -are-you-serious- kind of look and then says, "Physics sucks."

He shakes his head. "You're clearly mistaken."

"The sky is sometimes blue. The grass tends to be green. Physics sucks."

Derek snorts. "Okay, there, miss logic."

She smiles. "Derek, I'm pretty sure that you were the only one in fourth grade who did logic problems."

He lets out a low chuckle and her heart beats quickly. "See you around Chloe." He says and then walks away.

She watches him walk to the other end of the library before she grabs her physics textbook and heads to the photocopier to get a version of the first chapter. She photocopies about two to three lessons before tiring. She pays the fee, shoves the papers into her bag and walks out of the library. She walks into an alleyway, looking down and feeling sorry for herself like the pitiful person she's being right now, and walks into someone. Again. It's Derek.

He looks at her in concern and surprise and says. "Chloe, have you been crying? Is everything okay?"

She looks at Derek, with his gorgeous eyes and gorgeous face and she forgets that he's her ex's brother, she forgets that she's not close with him, she forgets that she's in an alleyway talking to him, she forgets that he could tell Simon, she forgets that what she is about to do is crazy. She forgets everything that could hold her back and she bursts into tears.

"No!" She sobs. "Everything is not okay. Simon cheated on me with some girl named Mila, who was failing English and they're dating and it's like he forgot about me! All my friends are busy and I don't have anyone to talk to! My days are filled with binge watching Netflix—when a month and a week ago, I was making out with my boyfriend and having a good time. My doctor asked me if I'm sexually active and you know what I had to say? Huh?" She howls. "I had to say no! I had to say that no, I'm seventeen and I haven't had sex yet because my asshole of a boyfriend treated me like shit and then dumped me after I caught him cheating on our one year anniversary!" She's crying like crazy now, and she knows that when she's done she'll hate herself even more, but honestly at this point, does it even matter anymore? "My Dad and I haven't talked in ages, and usually that doesn't matter but God I just need someone to talk to and everything is going to shit. I miss Tori, I miss Liz, I miss Nate, I miss Simon—God, you have no fucking clue how much I miss him even though I hate him too—and I miss my mom. I miss her so bad that it feels like my soul is being ripped apart and then blended to make a soul smoothie and every day I wake up and wonder what my life would be like if she hadn't died." She wipes her tears and continues, with Derek listening intently. "To recap, no everything is not okay. My boyfriend broke up with me a week before my mom's death, my friends are all gone, my Dad and I haven't talked and on top of all that—I'm crying over a boy and blabbing to you. Nothing is okay. My entire world is crumbling around me and I didn't even fucking notice!" She holds her head in her hands. "How pathetic is it that I'm crying about this?"

She heaves a huge sigh and slumps against the wall. Why did she confide in Derek Souza? She's literally never spoken to him before. What the hell? There's a silence so still that she wonders if he's either been frozen by Elsa or if he's run away while she wasn't looking. She looks up and sees that he's staring at her in surprise, eyes wide and mouth slightly open.

He sits down next to her, crosses his legs and then—oh my god? Is he cradling her in his lap? And rocking her back and forth like she's a little baby who needs help? She never knew that Derek had a side this sweet. Christ, did he just kiss her forehead? Not that she's complaining. He smells like heaven and the forest, like fresh air and a summer's breeze.

He doesn't say anything for a while. He just holds her and rocks her, not touching anything but her legs and back. He doesn't pull a sly move and put his hand up the sides of her shorts or up her shirt, or anything like that. He just holds her, rocking back and forth quietly, humming a soft melody that is as beautiful as he is and –nobody has ever made her felt this safe and sound and alive.

"I'm s-sorry." She stutters awkwardly after a while, lifting her head off of his shoulder. "I s-shouldn't have dumped all of that on you, especially because Simon is your brother."

Derek holds her still and traces shapes into her palms. "Simon can be an idiot sometimes." He says, soft and slow. "I'm sorry he hurt you."

"That makes two of us." She says, sighing. "I feel so stupid crying over him and it's ridiculous and pathetic. I seriously thought I was over him and I'm pretty sure I am."

"Do you want some advice?" He rumbles softly.

She shrugs. "Sure."

He clears his throat and adjusts her in his lap and says, "Well, before I can give you any advice, we should go somewhere comfortable." He runs a hand down her arm absentmindedly and says, "We can talk over food."

She lifts her head up and looks at him in question. He blushes. "Sorry, I'm hungry." She laughs and rises, wiping her tears away.

Ten minutes later they're situated in her kitchen and she's telling him where everything is. (She didn't want to go to his house because Simon could be there, and neither did he because apparently there's no food left there).

He makes a sandwich and says, "You want to know what I think?" He continues without an answer, "I think that you're over Simon but you'll know for sure after you get closure."

She raises her eyebrow. "Closure?"

He nods. "You need to know why he did what he did and what lead to it. That way, you can recollect your feelings and get a proper understanding of how you feel." He takes a bite, chews and then swallows. "As for the friend situation, find other people to hang out with. You're nice and sweet and very interesting, it shouldn't be hard to make friends. You have me, obviously, but I'm not that good at being social so…"

Chloe grins at him. "Mhm, the onetime make out sessions that you're infamous for don't indicate a lack of poor social skills."

Derek avoids her gaze and quite vigorously bites into his sandwich, rosy patches of color forming on his cheeks. "I don't know what you're talking about." He mumbles after swallowing his bite. "And finally, I think you should call your dad and say you guys need to have meetings and he can't miss them."

She smiles at him. "Thank you for listening to me ramble and for giving me advice, Derek. I know it was out of the blue."

The corner of his lips twitch upwards in a small smile as he says, "Don't worry about it. I'm used to having people explode on me." She wonders for a second if that really did sound like a sexual innuendo, or if it's just her male deprived mind making it sound that way. But judging from the way Derek grimaces right after he finishes the statement, she can tell that it was the former of the two. She finds this very funny, because from what she's heard, Derek is very good with his words. Apparently not around her.

For some strange reason, knowing that she makes him fumble with his wording makes her smile.

()()()

"Sorry it took so long to open the door, I was bus—Chloe?" Simon opens the door wider, leaning against in surprise at her arrival. She waits for him to continue, which he does a second later. "What are you doing here?"

Chloe stares at Simon, and tells herself that she needs closure. No matter how painful it might be. "I wanted to talk to you about some stuff. I have some questions—if you're not busy, that is."

He shakes his head and lets her in, shutting the door behind him. "I'm free for the day. Mila has an event that she needs to attend. So, what'd you want to talk about?"

She sits down on the couch and he does the same. She crosses her ankles and says, "I wanted to talk about Mila, amongst other things."

She can tell that he's surprised from the way he almost drops his drink. Simon places it on the coffee table in front of them and wrings his hands together. "What about Mila?"

Chloe rubs the bridge of her nose as she compiles an answer. How is she supposed to get closure? What kind of questions should she ask? What can she handle knowing? She has literally no clue. What would Derek do? She thinks about it and almost smiles. He would probably not bother with sugar coating and ask without thinking of boundaries.

"Why her?" She asks finally. "Why did you cheat on me with Mila?"

Simon doesn't look at her. He obviously doesn't want to answer. But she's going to make him answer. Chloe scoots closer to him and grabs his chin, making their gazes meet. "I deserve to know, Simon. You know I do."

Simon nods and she lets her hand fall, ignoring the look in his eyes as she does. "It wasn't meant to happen, I swear. I didn't _choose_ Mila, if that's what you're thinking. I didn't want to hurt you by cheating on you or something like that." He clears his throat, still avoiding her gaze. "When we started dating, I told you that I didn't do very long relationships. And you accepted that, and took me as I was. You were a really good girlfriend, a really good person, to me. You were kind, and sweet and loving, and every day I felt that I didn't deserve you. But I wanted you. And everything was okay for a long time, until I screwed up, like I knew I would." He meets her gaze, finally. "But you let me get away with it. You said it was okay, and you were nice to me the way I expected you would be." He looks away and back at her again. "I took you for granted Chloe, and I kept making mistake and I let our relationship break. I needed someone to talk to about that, and Mila ended up being that someone."

Her eyes narrow. "Are you saying it's my fault that you cheated on me, because I was too nice and forgiving?"

"No, no!" Simon raises his hands up. "I let things fall apart for a long time, and I started depending on Mila. The day you caught us, I called her over to tell her that I was going to break up with you. Because you deserved better and so did Mila." He looks down. "I'm sorry Chloe. I never told you that, but I am so sorry. I care about you and I miss being friends."

She nods, finally. "Okay."

"Okay?" He repeats in question. "Okay what?"

"I forgive you and I'm sorry that I couldn't be the one for you." She stands up. "I hope we can be good friends someday soon."

He smiles at her and says, "I'd love that." He follows her to the front door and asks, "I have a question."

She shrugs. "Sure, what is it?"

"What made you ask? Or should I say who?"

She gives him a sly smile and slips out the door after saying, "A friend did." He laughs at her elusiveness and lets the door shut.

Chloe smiles and mentally ticks that off of her list of things to do. The next thing she has to do is call her father. She walks to a local park and hold the phone to her ear, waiting for him to pick up.

"Hello, this is Mr. Saunders answering."

"Hey Dad." She greets, looking down at her hands. "Do you not have my number saved?"

"I do, I promise, I answered without looking."

"Wow, if your gaze isn't glued to your phone—what is it glued to?" She retorts.

"Chloe…"

She winces at how their conversation is starting out. "Sorry, that was uncalled for." She takes a deep breath and continues. "I called to say that enough is enough. I get that you're busy making money and running a business, and sometimes your priorities change—but I'm done with it Dad. We need to make time for each other because otherwise you probably are closer to your business partners than you with are with me."

Her Dad sighs. "You're right Chloe; I know that I've been distant lately."

She snorts. "Lately? Dad, try, my entire life." Silence. "I mean it when I say I'm done. If something doesn't change, then, I'm going to move in with Aunt Lauren." She hadn't originally planned on saying that, but once the words were out, she knew that they were true. She pushes on, quickly, before he can say anything. "Thursday, next week, at the diner across from my school, at seven thirty. If you aren't there, I'll know where you stand on the moving out." She hangs up quickly and takes a deep breath.

She did it! She handled it quite well. The friends things she'd get to work on tomorrow. As she was walking home, doing a celebratory dance in her head, her phone began to ring. She answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hey Chloe." Rumbled the sweet, lulling deep voice of Derek. "Did you speak to Simon?"

She nods, beaming, even though he can't see her. "Yep, I also spoke to my Dad. It went pretty well. I'm over Simon, I have my closure and a meeting scheduled with my Dad." She gushes. "Thank you for your help Derek."

"No problem. Although, there is one thing left."

She frowns at first and then remembers. "Oh yeah, the more socialization thing. I'm doing that tomorrow."

"Actually, I was referring to something else." He corrects, with a teasing voice. "You mentioned that you were frustrated by the fact that you're seventeen and a virgin, right?"

"Yes." She squeaks, blushing and wondering where he's going with this.

"I can fix the virgin status thing easily, if you want." He says, laughing.

She's still blushing, but from the intonation in his voice, she knows that he's only joking. "Ha-ha." She says, rolling her eyes. "Nice try."

"Not my best though." He clears his throat and starts to say something before stopping. And then he starts again. "There's no easy way to say this but, I like you and I'd like to get to know you better. The timing isn't right, but it never usually is. Time is a man made construct, which means—never mind. But you know what I'm talking about, and for the time being, I'd like to be friends. So, do you want to talk over coffee tomorrow—as friends of course—at Starbucks?"

She grins, eyes shining and replies with an ecstatic affirmative. They speak for a little bit longer before Derek has to go and she tucks her phone into her bag with the grin still on her face. Sure, there were a few challenges ahead, but what was life without a few bumps along the way. And who's to say those bumps aren't blessings in disguise. Yesterday, she was sad and in tears, moping around. Today, she's filled with a content happiness and the promise of something better to come. And tomorrow, well, let's see how that plays out.

With a grin on her face and a jump in her step, she walks home, all the while wondering about surprises.

 **()()()**

 **Thanks for reading!**


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